That's Maths! The Mathematical Magic in Everyday Life by Peter Lynch

The mathematical magic in the everyday, based on the popular and long-running Irish Times column

Have you ever wondered how Google works? Why clouds don’t fall down? Or how a slinky works? Did you know that we have Einstein to thank for GPS? Or what would happen if you fell through a hole in the middle of the earth? Well… That’s Maths!

Mathematics isn’t just for academics and scientists, a fact meteorologist and blogger Peter Lynch has spent the past several years proving through his Irish Times newspaper column and blog, That’s Maths.

What’s inside?

Peter Lynch insists that bragging about mathematical ineptitude is not cool. Can we all do maths? Yes we can. We hardly notice it, but we’re in mathematical mode all the time, whether driving, laying on a bet or buying a house. We use simple arithmetic every day when we buy a newspaper, a cinema ticket or a pint of beer. But we also do more high-level mathematical reasoning all the time, unaware of the sophistication of our thinking.

Whether you are discussing the weather, playing a computer game, slicing a pizza or crossing the road, you are thinking in mathematical mode. On a daily basis, you seek the best deal, the shortest route, the highest interest rate or the fastest way to get the job done with least effort… that’s maths too!

In this collection of his highly accessible, offbeat and intriguing columns on mathematics, Peter shows how maths is all around us, with chapters on the beautiful equations behind designing a good concert venue, predicting the stock market and modelling the atom bomb, as well as playful meditations on everything from the sums involved in coin-stacking to the map of London’s underground.

If you left school thinking maths was boring, think again!

(And if you are still wondering about that slinky, watch this video below)

Keep up to date with Peter on his blog and Twitter.

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About the Author

Peter Lynch is Emeritus Professor of Meteorology at University College Dublin and a maths fanatic. In his retirement Peter continues his research in dynamical meteorology and expounds the awesome wonders of maths in his blog, That’s Maths, with a fortnightly column of the same name for The Irish Times.